A 24-year-old Moreno Valley man faces prosecution for the pointing a laser at a sheriff’s helicopter crew during a nighttime search for a missing Alzheimer’s patient, federal officials say.

Miguel Avalos is scheduled to be arraigned June 24 in U.S. District Court in Riverside on one count of pointing a laser beam at an aircraft.

Green laser light dazed a deputy and temporarily prevented him from seeing outside the cockpit of a Riverside County sheriff’s helicopter he was flying about 9 p.m. Feb. 10 over Moreno Valley, federal officials said in a written statement.

If convicted as charged, Avalos would face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, three years of supervised probation and a $250,000 fine, according to the statement.

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